Great thinker, a fountain of ideas: Industry mourns Brendan Pereira

One of the first and most successful creative directors of the Indian advertising industry, Brendan Conan Pereira passed away at 96 in Mumbai on Sunday. Fondly known as BCP, he started as an art director just as India became independent and became the co-founder of Chaitra Advertising in 1972, which eventually became Leo Burnett India. 

Often regarded as an institution unto himself, BCP passed out of Sir JJ School of Arts in 1948. He had joined the advertising industry as an assistant art director and visualiser as a mere 20-year-old. His creative abilities were discovered while he was assisting PN Sarma at DJ Keymer (now Ogilvy) when he inadvertently used a line while creating the print ad for the British car brand Rover, giving him his first experience of client servicing. 

In 1999, he wrote a memoir called Changing Faces. Peppered with pictures of his family, work and other aspects of his life, the book also chronicles the changes that Pereira saw in the world around him through the decades.  

After Brendan Pereira passed away on Sunday, e4m reached out to some other industry veterans to learn how they remembered Pereira and his impact on Indian advertising. 

Jameel Gulrays who was a part of the Communications Art Guild or CAG committee, alongside BCP said he would miss Pereira greatly. “He was a huge brain, a big great thinker,” said Gulrays. He recalled how one time Pereira had to go for a client meeting but didn’t have any artwork or layout ready. “He went into the meeting with a blank paper but came out with approved ideas! He was a very good organiser. This is a big loss to the advertising industry. He was a fountain of ideas. And these were good amazing ideas, not ones that can be thrown away anywhere,” he further said. 

Ashish Bhasin who had entered the industry 36 years ago remembers Brendan Pereira as an awe-inspiring industry leader he held in awe as a rookie. “Brendan was one of the stalwarts of the advertising industry in his days. He founded one of the leading agencies of the time, which later became Leo Burnett. Among other things, he had a great flair for creative, remarkable sense of aesthetics and photography. Most of all, he combined that with great people skills,” he said. Though not wanting to make a rhetoric, he said that the passing of Brendan cannot be described as anything but the end of an era of Indian advertising.

KV Sridhar ‘Pops’ remembers Pereira “like any other creative person of that era had this typical style of his pipe and suspenders.” He said he had brief interactions with the man, but has worked more with his son and ace photographer Ian Pereira. “Brendan was my senior; when we entered advertising, he was already the reigning ‘hero’ of advertising.” he said.